Plymouth author Paula Marcoux cooks with fire

The editor of Edible South Shore offers recipes for foods prepared with a wide range of materials and historic techniques used across culture in her new cookbook “Cooking with Fire.”

By Jody FeinbergThe Patriot Ledger

Nearly everyone has cooked over a wood fire – even if only to roast a marshmallow or hot dog. Now comes Plymouth food historian and archeologist Paula Marcoux, whose new cookbook “Cooking with Fire” shows the mouth-watering possibilities of flames.

“I’d like people to take a step back and see how much fun it can be cooking with wood and how much better the food tastes,” said Marcoux of Plymouth, who also is the editor of the magazine Edible South Shore.

Marcoux offers recipes for foods prepared with a wide range of materials and historic techniques used across cultures. She treats each with equal respect – a simple chunk of cheese held on a stick, sea scallop lollipops on a griddle, beef shanks in a cast iron pot, pork loin twisting on a spit and bread in a wood-fired oven

“Cooking with wood will interest people with a little sense of adventure, an open mind and a willingness to take the time to enjoy what they’re doing,” said Marcoux, who subtitled the book “From Roasting on a Spit to Baking in a Tannur, Rediscovered Techniques and Recipes that Capture the Flavors of Wood-Fired Cooking.”

With a brief historical perspective opening each chapter, the book has 100 recipes and dozens of beautiful color photographs. Part do-it-yourself guide, there are step-by-step photographs that illustrate techniques such as: building a fire, firing up a smoker, baking in a kettle, creating an in-ground lobster bake, and building and heating a wood-fired oven.

“There’s nobody who will do every crazy thing in this book, but I’m hoping there is something in the book to engage everybody,” said Marcoux, 53, who also is working on a book for the Plymouth Antiquarian Society about 19th century cooking.

Marcoux, who grew up in Rehoboth and majored in archeology at Brown University, has been interested in food for and cooking for as long as she can remember. While doing fieldwork in the Middle East, she became fascinated by wood fire cooking techniques. As Colonial food ways manager at Plimoth Plantation from 1987 to 2008, she researched and taught pre-industrial cooking and built wood-fired ovens.

After she left Plimoth Plantation, she devoted herself to researching early bread-baking, building ovens from the past and publishing scholarly articles. Her work caught the attention of an editor at Storey Publishing in North Adams, who offered her a book contract.

“I first hesitated because I was so into what I was doing,” Marcoux said. “Gradually, I became aware that I was being a complete moron, and once I realized this is a book I wanted to write, I fell completely in love with it.”

For the extensive photo shoots, Marcoux prepared many dishes, including a favorite using a technique called planking – which nailed a striped bass to a wooden plank set on the edge of a fire.

“It was crispy and delicious on the outside and perfectly moist on the inside, with a wonderful fire-roasted flavor,” she said. “We had a lobster bake the same day, and lobsters were really good, but the fish was even better.”

Part of the fun of cooking over fire are opportunities for people to participate, she said. One set of photos shows how to make a pine needle fire to cook mussels.

“It’s a lot of fun for families and guests to take a hand in the cooking, especially if it’s out of the ordinary,” said Marcoux, who also has been a food history consultant for The History Channel and films.

She uses hardwoods such as maple and oak for an open fire, which can be made on the ground, in indoor and outdoor fire places and even Webber grills. For the oven, she uses softwood such as pine. Natural charcoal – as opposed to briquettes that contain petroleum – also is good since it is wood that has been partially burned but not combusted.

While the recipes for shish-kabob, grilled chicken and leg of lamb can be prepared on a gas grill, Marcoux said the meat will taste inferior.

“Gas can’t hold a candle to wood,” she said. “With wood, you get a high heat that actually is searing, carbonizing the fat and bone that adds so much flavor. A gas grill is more like a home oven, and with the lid on, it’s basically a steam box.”

Some of the most mouth-watering photos are the flat and loaf breads – tortillas, boreks, pita baked on a griddle, nan in a tannur (a masonry cylinder), crusty bread in a cast iron kettle and pizza and loaves in a wood-fired oven.

“The crust of the bread from the heated clay becomes unbelievably crackling and succulent,” Marcoux said. “I have met many people who were surprised you could bake bread in a wood-fired oven.”

Marcoux also promotes the replacement of commercial yeast with home-made leaven, which is popular now among serious bread bakers.

“Fermenting your own starter is a huge trend now,” Marcoux said. “It adds more flavor and moisture, and it takes longer for the bread to go stale or moldy. It’s another example of taking control of and understanding how things work.”

Adding to her extensive knowledge, Marcoux said she learned some new uses for fire while working on the book. Holding an iron poker in the flames until red hot, she dipped it into a drink known as Flip, a mixture of beer, rum and molasses enjoyed in America in the late 1700s.

“The drink makes a crazy sound when it foams up, and you can caramelize it as much as you want,” she said. “It’s fun and delicious.”

Jody Feinberg may be reached at jfeinberg@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @JodyF_Ledger.